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Offenders: Death

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice in how many cases of the unexpected death of an offender while serving a custodial sentence in a prison or a young offender institution the family or next of kin of the deceased paid either some or all of the legal costs arising from inquest proceedings in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what sum on average was paid by the family or next of kin in such cases. (218876)

Inquests into deaths in prison custody are inquisitorial fact-finding processes, heard by a coroner with a jury. The information is not available in the requested format but figures for the number of cases where funding has been provided for families through legal aid exceptional funding is given in the following table. Figures are not available on whether those who were granted legal aid also had to pay a contribution to their own legal costs, but contributions are not normally requested.

Number of cases granted exceptional funding

Number of cases exceptional funding refused/abandoned

2003-04

70

15

2004-05

54

20

2005-06

93

13

2006-07

80

20

2007-08

87

13